Manage budgets
/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets
section
2026-02-19T17:09:06+01:00
# Manage budgets
Manage budgets - overview
/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/manage-budgets-overview
page
A company budget generally consists of a set of interrelated budgets that the company's top managers use for planning, financial analysis, and forecasting.
2026-02-19T17:09:06+01:00
# Manage budgets - overview
A company budget generally consists of a set of interrelated budgets that the company's top managers use for planning, financial analysis, and forecasting.
A company budget generally consists of a set of interrelated budgets that the company's top
managers use for planning, financial analysis, and forecasting.
In Visma Net,
you can create and maintain any number of budgets and budget scenarios (versions of a budget)
for all branches, and you can compare budgets to actual data or to other budgets. Also, you can
configure user access to sensitive budget articles.
The topics below contain an overview of the budgets (simple and hierarchical), a description of the configuration of the budget tree, and other details concerning the budgets in Visma Net.
## Topics
+ [Overview of budgets](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/overview-of-budgets/)
+ [Budget structure example](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/budget-structure-example/)
+ [Prepare a budget](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/prepare-a-budget/)
Overview of budgets
/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/overview-of-budgets
section
With Visma Net, you can create budgets without first configuring single-level lists of budget articles.
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# Overview of budgets
With Visma Net, you can create budgets without first configuring single-level lists of budget articles.
With Visma Net, you can create budgets without first configuring single-level lists of budget
articles.
If your company needs hierarchical budgets, you can configure a budget tree
and then create hierarchical budgets.
## Features affecting the budgets
If the **Branch accounting** functionality is enabled in your system, budgets can be created on a per-branch basis, with one ledger holding the budgets for all branches. If this functionality is not enabled, each budget you create is intended for the entire organisation.
Detailed budgets may include articles that are split by subaccounts into multiple subarticles. If the **Subaccounts** functionality is not enabled in your system, budget articles are created on a per-account basis.
This overview discusses the functionality of budgets in a system where the **Branch accounting** and **Subaccounts** functionalities are enabled.
## Single-level budgets
In its simplest window, a budget is a list of planned or forecasted revenues and
expenses.
You can create such budgets as single-level lists of budget articles with
the amounts representing specific expenses and revenues for a budget year at a
particular branch. In such budgets, a **budget article** is defined by an
account-subaccount pair (or by a particular account in a system where subaccounts
are not used).
Simple budgets, unlike hierarchical budgets, require no preliminary configuring. You
can create single-level budgets by using the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window.
In the same budget ledger, you can keep budgets of all the
branches of your organisation for one financial year or multiple years.
You can
create separate budgets for each branch.
You can create a list of budget articles in one of the following ways:
+ By manually selecting an account and subaccount and typing the amount for each budget article.
+ By importing the list from an Excel spreadsheet.
+ By loading the account-subaccount pairs from an actual ledger or from another budget ledger with their amounts. You can specify a multiplier to calculate the budget amounts based on the amounts available in the source ledger.
Also, you can create the budget in multiple stages that may include:
+ Creating a list of account-subaccount pairs manually, by importing the list, or by loading it.
You may create a list by using one of the methods or a combination of the methods.
+ Entering, loading, or importing the amounts.
## Budget tree configuration
If no budget tree has been configured in your system, you can create only
single-level budgets.
If your company needs hierarchical budgets, you can configure
the budget structure by using the [Budget configuration (GL205000)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-configuration-gl205000/) window.
Review the budgets of all branches to include all the budget levels used by
your branches, because the same tree will be used for all branches and all budget
versions.
A budget tree has **leaves** or budget articles, each of which is defined by an
account-subaccount pair and **nodes**; each node may include leaf articles and
nodes.
A node article can be defined by its description and optionally by an account
and subaccount mask.
An account-subaccount pair may be used only once within the tree.
The main difference between leaf articles and node articles is that when you create a
budget, you can enter the amounts for leaves, but not for nodes.
The system
calculates the amount for each node automatically as the sum of the amounts of all
its leaf articles.
The amounts for nodes containing other nodes are also calculated
automatically, based on the amounts of all leaf articles within those nodes.
For an
example of a budget structure, see: [Budget structure example](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/budget-structure-example/),
You can populate each node in any of the following ways:
+ By manually creating a list of subarticles: nodes, nodes and leaf articles, or only leaf articles.
+ By generating the list of pairs for the specified range of accounts and the specified subaccount mask. Depending on whether the **On-the-fly entry** check box is selected for subaccounts in the [Segment keys (CS202000)](/visma-net-erp/help/common-settings/common-settings-windows/segment-keys-cs202000/) window, the possible pairs will be generated for only subaccounts available on the list of subaccounts (if the check box is cleared) or for all possible subaccounts resulting from combining all segment values (if the check box is selected). Once all the specified pairs have been generated, you can delete the pairs that are not needed in the budget article.
Modifications of the budget tree do not affect released budgets, so you can modify the tree at any time.
## Leaf articles with aggregation
When you prepare budgets in Visma Net, in addition to budget articles that are leaves or nodes, you can use budget
articles that are leaf articles with aggregating masks for accounts and subaccounts.
An article of this type can be used for initial aggregation of insignificant amounts
into one budget article.
For example: Suppose that you are planning office supplies
for the next year based on the amount spent last year.
You don't want to enter all
the amounts for office supplies required for each employee in each department.
Rather, you want to get the total amount previously spent on such supplies, to use
this amount as a basis for a new amount for such supplies adjusted for increase or
decrease in the number of employees and for other factors.
In such a case, you add to the budget tree a leaf budget article that aggregates amounts over multiple similar account-subaccount pairs defined by account and subaccount masks. Then, on pre-loading the actual data for this budget article, the system will calculate the sum of the amounts available for all pairs defined by the specified masks. However, you will not be able to view the details of the article or the list of account-subaccount pairs defined by the masks and their amounts. You can edit this aggregated amount as an amount of any other leaf article.
For details, see [Budget structure example.](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/budget-structure-example/)
## Hierarchical budgets
You can create hierarchical budgets by using the>[Budget configuration (GL205000)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-configuration-gl205000/) window.
Each budget should be saved to a ledger of the **Budget**
type.
Each budget ledger may store budgets for all branches for all financial years.
If you had created single-level budgets before you configured the budget tree, you can convert each of them to a hierarchical budget based on the budget tree.
CAUTION: Before you start converting simple budgets into hierarchical
budgets, make sure that there are no conflicts between the tree and the
single-level budget.
No conversion will be performed if any mask used for a
single-level budget is split into multiple masks on a tree or if multiple masks
used somewhere in the single-level budget are merged into a single mask for the
tree.
To do this, in the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window, select an
existing single-level budget, and click **Manage budgets** in the window toolbar.
In the dialog box, select the **Convert budget using current budget configuration** action and click **OK**.
## Budget data entry with the wizard
Once you start to prepare a new budget by using the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window, the system loads the budget articles from the budget tree.
After that, you
will be able to enter the amounts for the budget articles loaded from the tree and
add new articles.
You cannot remove any of the articles loaded
window the budget tree even if they are not needed in this particular
budget.
You can enter the amounts for leaf budget articles in one of the following ways:
+ Manually
+ By importing the amounts from a file
+ By loading the data from an actual ledger or from an existing budget.
To facilitate data loading, Visma Net provides the **Preload budget articles** wizard, which helps you select the
budget articles for loading and specify the data source. You can load the amounts
for the budget at once or separately, for each node of the budget. You can load the
articles from an actual ledger or from another budget, or you can import the amounts
from a file. You can specify a multiplier to calculate the budget amounts based on
the amounts in the selected source.
For more information, see: [Prepare a budget.](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/prepare-a-budget/)
## Distribution over financial periods
The amounts specified for an article should be distributed over the periods of the
year before you can release the budget article.
For the budget article to be
released, the amount of the article must be equal to the distributed amount.
You can
enter the amounts for each period manually, or you can distribute them automatically
by clicking **Distribute** in the table toolbar of the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window and selecting the option that defines how the
amounts should be distributed: evenly or by period balances.
If your company has an adjustment period, it will be included in the distribution performed based on available balances for the periods of the year. If you want to distribute the amounts over the financial periods evenly, the system excludes the adjustment period from this distribution.
To facilitate distributing, you also can select whether you want to distribute the amount for only the selected article or for all articles in the same node. Also, you can select a node and distribute the amounts for all subarticles of this node.
## Budget ledgers and budget scenarios
You can create a budget and save it in a ledger of the **Budget** type.
Generally, each budget ledger holds a budget of a specific type for all branches.
To
create different budgets for the same year, such as **worst-case**,
**break-even**, and **best-case**, use different budget ledgers.
When the
system loads the data for a new budget scenario from an existing budget, you can
specify the multiplier to decrease or increase the amounts being loaded for this
budget scenario.
Later, you can use the same ledger to create the budget of the same type for the next budget year.
## Budget approval and release
The amounts of budget articles are not
posted to the budget ledger until the articles are released.
Only leaf budget
articles may be released. The amounts for the budget articles that are nodes will be
calculated based on the amounts of released articles.
To release a leaf budget article, make sure the year amount of the article is equal to the sum of amounts calculated over the financial periods of the year.
You can release the entire budget or the selected budget articles by using the [Release budgets (GL505510)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/release-budgets-gl505510/) window.
Once a budget article has been released, the **Released** check box is selected for it in the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window.
You can modify budgets at any time.
Once you have modified a budget article, you have to release the article to view its
amount on reports.
Also, you can roll back the budget to the previous released
budget.
## Budget comparison
You can compare the budget being prepared to actual data of the previous year, to year-to-date amounts of the current year, or to other budgets.
Save the budget before comparison by clicking  on the window toolbar.
To compare the budgets, in the top part of the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window, ensure that the ledger and the financial year of the budget being prepared is selected in the **Budget** and **Financial year** fields respectively. In the **Compare to ledger** and the **Compare to year** fields, select the ledger and the financial year of the budget needed for comparison.
Once you have specified the required ledgers and financial years in the table, the system adds a row to each budget article being prepared that shows the amounts of the budget of the compared ledger and financial year.
Only the released amounts of the budget articles are shown in the table.
If the **Multi-branch support** functionality is available in your system (the **Multi-branch support** functionality is enabled in the [Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000)](/visma-net-erp/help/common-settings/enable-or-disable-functionalites/enable-disable-functionalities-cs100000/) window), you can compare the budgets of different branches by selecting the required branches in the **Branch** and **Compare to branch** fields.
## Budget access restrictions
In Visma Net, organisations implement general access restrictions by assigning roles to users
of the system.
The roles assigned to users allow them to perform specific tasks
required by their position in the organisation.
If a role allows a user to view or
edit budget articles, the user can view all the articles, including those that might
be sensitive.
Setting up proper restriction groups can ensure that only particular
users see particular budget articles.
A restriction group allows access to
particular objects of specific types (which are included in the group) to only the
users who are members of the same group.
Objects of the following types can be included in a restriction group:
+ Budget articles (leaf articles or nodes at any level)
+ Users
To protect sensitive budget articles, you create a restriction group by using the [Budget access (GL105030)](/visma-net-erp/help/access-management/row-level-security/row-level-security-windows/budget-access-gl105030/) window and include the budget articles and the users who should have access to these articles. As a result, the users not included in the group will not be able to access the budget articles and these articles' subarticles if there are any. You can add new budget articles to existing groups by using the [Restriction groups by budget article (GL105020)](/visma-net-erp/help/access-management/row-level-security/row-level-security-windows/restriction-groups-by-budget-article-gl105020/) window.
Parent topic:
[Manage budgets - overview](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/manage-budgets-overview/)
Related pages
Concepts
Tasks
Budget structure example
/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/budget-structure-example
page
In Visma Net, you can create a budget structure with multiple levels of budget articles.
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# Budget structure example
In Visma Net, you can create a budget structure with multiple levels of budget articles.
In Visma Net, you can create a budget structure with multiple levels of budget articles.
For
more information on budgets, see: [Overview of budgets.](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/overview-of-budgets/)
Consider a simplified example of a budget structure for a company called Winter fun.
This business has two stores (one store on the west slope of a mountain and another
on the east slope), sells skis and snowboards, and offers rental services.
The
company's stores are too small to function as branches, so the **Branch accounting** functionality is disabled in the company's system.
The organisational structure of the company is reflected in the subaccounts.
In Visma Net, if the **Subaccounts** functionality is enabled, subaccounts are used with accounts
to virtually split accounts into more specific accounts for detailed tracking and
reporting.
In our example, the subaccounts have the following structure:
+ First segment: **Company store (point of sale)**
+ **WS** (west slope store)
+ **ES** (east slope store)
+ **00** (non-specific to a store)
+ Second segment: **Profit centre**
+ **RENT** (rentals)
+ **SALE** (sales)
+ **0000** (non-specific to a profit centre)
+ Third segment: **Product type**
+ **SK** (skis)
+ **SB** (snowboards)
+ **00** (non-specific)
In our simplified example, the Winter fun company prepares the budgets with the following major budget articles:
+ Revenue from sales
+ Revenue from rentals
+ COGS
+ Other expenses
In Visma Net, you use the [Budget configuration (GL205000)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-configuration-gl205000/) window to build a budget
tree for the company.
On the budget tree, the major budget articles are the nodes of
the first level (just under the root node).
No account and subaccount masks are
specified for these nodes because these nodes include only nodes, not leaf articles.
Masks are used for generating leaf articles or for aggregating the data for leaf
articles for a particular budget.
On the left pane of this window, the tree-like budget structure for the company would be organised as schematically shown in the table below.
## Budget tree
|Article|Subarticles|Subarticles|Account mask|Subaccount mask|Account|Subaccount|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Sales**|||||||
||**Sales–West slope**||||||
|||Sales–West slope–Skis|||3100|WS-SALE-SK|
|||Sales–West slope–Snowboards|||3100|WS-SALE-SB|
||**Sales–East slope**||3100|ES-SALE-??|||
|||Sales–East slope–Skis|||3000|ES-SALE-SK|
|||Sales–East slope–Snowboards|||3000|ES-SALE-SB|
|**Rentals**|||||||
||**Rentals–West slope**||3500|WS-RENT-??|||
|||Rentals–West slope–Skis|||3500|WS-RENT-SK|
|||Rentals–West slope–Snowboards|||3500|WS-RENT-SB|
||**Rentals–East slope**||3500|ES-RENT-??|||
|||Rentals–East slope–Skis|||3500|ES-RENT-SK|
|||Rentals–East slope–Snowboards|||3500|ES-RENT-SB|
|**COGS**|||||||
||**COGS–Skis**||4500|??-SALE-SK|||
|||COGS–East slope–Skis|||4500|ES-SALE-SK|
|||COGS–West slope–Skis|||4500|WS-SALE-SK|
||**COGS–Snowboards**||4500|??-SALE-SB|||
|||COGS–East slope–Snowboards|||4500|ES-SALE-SB|
|||COGS–West slope–Snowboards|||4500|WS-SALE-SB|
|**Other Expenses**|||||||
||**Repairs and Maintenance**||55??|??-????-??|||
|||Repairs and maintenance–East slope|5570|ES-????-?? (Aggregation)|5570|ES-0000-00|
|||Repairs and maintenance–West slope|5580|WS-????-?? (Aggregation)|5580|WS-0000-00|
In the [Budget configuration (GL205000)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-configuration-gl205000/) window, each budget article shown in the table
above with an account mask (or just an account) in the **Account mask** column
and a subaccount mask in the **Subaccount mask** column is a node. Each budget
article with an account specified in the **Account** column and a subaccount
specified in the **Subaccount** column is a leaf article on the budget tree.
Budget articles included in other budget articles (nodes) are also referred to as
subarticles.
Once you specify the amounts for all leaf articles, the system will
calculate the sums of subarticle amounts for each node article.
The articles with values in all four columns are leaf articles with initial
aggregation over the data defined by these masks.
The expenses recorded to the
**Repairs and maintenance** account for each store last year, although summed
up to significant amounts, cannot help in predicting the expenses for the budget
year, but the their sum can. The company can plan the amounts based on the previous
year's data with a specific coefficient whose value is based on the percentage of
old equipment and other related factors. The company plans these amounts as lump
sums without details.
To do this, the company uses the budget articles with
aggregation.
The articles have the account-subaccount pairs specified and the
subaccount masks for aggregating the amounts.
Parent topic:
[Manage budgets - overview](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/manage-budgets-overview/)
Related reference
[Budgets](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/)
Related pages
Concepts
Prepare a budget
/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/prepare-a-budget
section
The process of preparing a budget may be performed in multiple stages over time.
2026-02-19T17:09:06+01:00
# Prepare a budget
The process of preparing a budget may be performed in multiple stages over time.
You can save the budget at any time and continue to work on it later.
## Before you proceed
Make sure the budget tree has been configured in the [Budget configuration (GL205000)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-configuration-gl205000/) window.
To create a new budget, perform the following steps:
1. Go to the [Budget (GL302010)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/budget-gl302010/) window.
1. In the **Branch** field, select the branch for which you want to prepare this budget.
1. In the **Ledger** field, select a ledger of the **Budget** type for this new budget.
1. Select the **Tree view** check box to also view the Tree pane.
1. In the **Financial year** field, select a budget year. The **Preload from budget configuration dialog box** appears.
1. Click **Yes** in the dialog box. The system loads the budget tree, which you can see in the left pane.
> [!NOTE]
> You cannot remove any of the loaded articles, even if they are not needed for this particular budget.
1. Optional: In the **Compare to branch** field, select the branch whose data you want to compare with the budget data. The selected branch will be used as the default branch for loading the data to populate the budget.
1. Optional: In the **Compare to ledger** field, select the ledger whose data you want to compare with the budget data. The selected ledger will be used as the default ledger for loading the data to populate the budget.
1. Optional: In the **Compare to year** field, select the financial year whose data you want to compare with the budget data. The selected year's data will be used as a source for loading the data to populate the budget.
1. Click .
1. If you want to load the data for the entire budget, in the Budget tree pane, select the root node. (If you want to load the data for only a particular node, select the node.) The selected node is shown in red type.
1. In the window toolbar, click **Preload articles**.
1. On the first page (Step 1) of the **Preload budget articles** wizard, in the **Branch** field, select the branch whose data you want to load.
1. In the **Ledger** field, select the ledger from which you want to load the data.
1. In the **Financial year** field, select the year for loading this year data.
1. In the **Multiplier** field, specify whether you want to load the data without changes (100%), with an increase (>100%), or with a decrease (<100%).
1. Click **Next** to open the next page of the wizard (Step 2).
1. In the [Chart of accounts (GL202500)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/chart-of-accounts-gl202500/) window.
1. In the **Account to** field, select the account to end the range of accounts for loading; otherwise, the system loads the accounts ending with the account listed last in the [Chart of accounts (GL202500)](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/general-ledger-windows/chart-of-accounts-gl202500/) window.
1. In the **Account mask** field, specify the mask to select only specific accounts from the range.
1. In the **Subaccount mask** field, modify the mask to select only specific subaccounts.
1. Click **Next** to open the next page of the wizard (Step 3).
1. Select one of the following options:
+ **Update existing articles only**: To load the data for only the articles available in this node and the nodes within this node.
+ **Update existing articles and Load non-existent articles**: To load the data for the articles available in this node and to add the articles not available in this node and load the data for them.
+ **Load non-existent articles only**: To add the articles that are not listed in the selected node and load the data for them.
1. Click **Finish** to close the wizard.
1. In the table, review the amounts of the budget articles, and change them as needed.
1. Click .
1. Distribute the amounts over the financial periods in all budgets by following the following steps:
1. In the Budget tree (left) pane, select the root node.
1. In the Budget articles (right) pane, click **Distribute** in the table toolbar.
1. In the **Distribute year amounts by periods dialog box**, select **Evenly** to distribute equal amounts to all periods or **Proportionally to compared values** to follow the distribution pattern in the source.
1. Select the **Apply to all articles in this node** check box to perform distribution for all articles in the selected node.
1. Select the **Apply to subarticles** check box to perform distribution within other nodes of the selected node.
1. Click **OK** to close the dialog box and to perform the distribution.
1. Adjust the period amounts manually if needed. Make sure the article's amount is equal to the distributed amount.
1. Click .
Parent topic:
[Manage budgets - overview](/visma-net-erp/help/general-ledger/manage-budgets/manage-budgets-overview/)